An exemplary project welcomed by the Court of Auditors, but challenges remain to be met

“Overall, it’s not bad!” Exclaimed Pierre Moscovici, first president of the Court of Auditors, commenting, on September 3, the third and last report on the Term-Dame site. In fact, its presentation is full of praise for driving an extraordinary restoration where “the budget and the calendar have been respected”. He also paid a tribute supported to the public establishment “rebuild Notre-Dame” and to its successive presidents, the late General Jean-Louis Georgelin and his “right arm” Philippe Jost.

Indeed, on the sum united by donors, young and old, which reached records of 843 million euros, “140 million still remain available for the third phase of the catering which consists in dealing with the problems identified before the fire” specifies Pierre Moscovici.

The Court of Auditors considers that this operating model could inspire the Ministry of Culture for the management of other sites, minimizing the fact that the sums committed are generally ten times, even twenty times, less than to Notre-Dame. The ministry also has a public establishment, the OPPIC to coordinate them.

The report also draws attention to the fact that the security of the cathedral was – and it is happy – notoriously strengthened, with a more efficient device and the creation of a permanent security position instead of using more or less well -trained external temporary workers. But, “this upgrade of safety equipment but also of safety to deal with the considerable flow of visitors, leads to a significant increase in operating expenses, which double compared to their level before fire. These should represent in a full year of an expense of € 5.2 million, including € 3.2 million at the expense of the diocese of Paris and € 2 million for the State. ”

To cope with this additional expense, Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture, had also declared himself favorable to a paid entry of Notre-Dame. Mgr Laurent Ulrich, archbishop of Paris- as the whole of the French clergy- had rejected this idea according to the principle that any visitor can be a pilgrim in the soul, and by pointing out that making access to religious buildings contravened the law of 1905 on the separation of the Church and the State. The diocese of Paris prefers, on its free reservation site for visitors, offer to make a donation for the maintenance of Notre-Dame.

The museum project in a standstill

The report draws from the more general lessons of this exemplary restoration: it points in particular to the absence of clear regulations on the treatment of lead in the historic monuments which leads to drastic precautionary measures which we do not know if they are founded: “Indeed, the absence of a suitable legal framework is likely to significantly increase the costs of restoration and operating, without the real utility of the measures being demonstrated.”

He also proposes that the Ministry of Culture reflects on the possibilities of downgrading of some of the vestiges collected after the fire: bits of charred wood, debris of strong archaeological interest, saturate the shelves of reserves resulting in significant storage costs. The downgrading of objects belonging to the State is nevertheless a delicate measure to handle and opens a breach in the concept that the national collections are inalienable. The fear of conservatives that can only be one day, we sell works of art on the pretext that they no longer please.

In conclusion, the Court of Auditors calls for “an urgent arbitration” and an recourse to patronage to revive the realization of the future museum of the work, announced by the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, and which has been the subject of a prefiguration report to be created on the grip of the Hôtel-Dieu, on the very forecourt of Notre-Dame. For budgetary reasons, this project is today in a standstill.